Publications / 2003 Proceedings of the 20th ISARC, Eindhoven, Holland

A Concept Study on Wearable Cockpit for Construction Work

Thomas Bock, Shigeki Ashida
Pages 369-373 (2003 Proceedings of the 20th ISARC, Eindhoven, Holland, ISBN 978-90-6814-574-8, ISSN 2413-5844)
Abstract:

Construction work needs in many cases human sense and decision, and consist in combination of every task and machine. In this aspect it must be effective that an operator can proceed a project while she/he is managing and operating tasks and several machines at a site with just-in-time accurate decision by means of constant monitoring. The existence of human being however causes problems as human inefficiency, inaccuracy and occupational danger and strain. And simple extension of object in operation, from a machine to all tasks in a project, is afraid to result only in increase of work load for a person. The wearable cockpit aims total control of a construction project. This means extension of the concept “to a cockpit for project control from that for only operation of a machine”. This concept includes multi-operation of several machines and total management of all tasks at a site. In the concrete the wearable cockpit includes 1) a tele-operation system for multi-operation, 2) assistance of decision making inclusive of enhancement of recognizing ability in time and space, 3) optimal task ordering and 4) optimizing of machines. In this study we consider to apply a RFID system with AR technology to the enhancement of recognition inclusive of on demand visual communication. For task ordering and machine optimizing, analysis of time allowance in each sequence is considered. On the automation unfriendly sequence a tele-operation system is usefully applied. By means of these kinds of assistance an operator makes accurate decision timely. Besides the human decision making lightens difficulty and costs for filling construction up with automation. As a result of these considerations an operator can control a project accurately and efficiently with technology of wearable equipment.

Keywords: Wearable Cockpit, Augmented Reality (AR), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Embedded System, Wearable Computer, Project Control